Putin Signs Law Clamping Down on Distribution of Foreign Print Media

6/18/19
President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on Monday that introduces fines for the unauthorized production or distribution of foreign print media. Russia has clamped down on the presence of foreign media in recent years. Since 2016, foreigners have been barred from owning more than 20 percent of media organizations, resulting in an exodus of foreign publishers. Putin in 2017 signed a law allowing Russian prosecutors to label media that receive funding from abroad as “foreign agents."

According to the latest law, publishing or distributing foreign media publications without obtaining a permit or properly registering the mass media outlet with the Roskomnadzor media watchdog will be subject to fines. Fines range from up to 1,500 rubles ($23) for citizens and up to 30,000 rubles ($470) for legal entities, Interfax reported. The amendment to Russia’s code on administrative offenses was first adopted in the State Duma on May 30 and approved by the upper-house Federation Council on June 11.

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Rogue Valley said:

Putin Signs Law Clamping Down on Distribution of Foreign Print Media

Another attack by the Putin regime on the press in Russia

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"Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century.

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Rogue Valley said:

Putin Signs Law Clamping Down on Distribution of Foreign Print Media

Another attack by the Putin regime on the press in Russia

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Captain Adverse said:

One can only hope he is digging his own grave.

Putin was KGB and a Communist Party apparatchik who (like many of his peers) used his connections with the old guard to worm his way into the new government after the fall of the Soviet Union.

He has been able to use those same connections, now with the help of the new oligarchs (Russian mafioso, other apparatchik's turned moguls, etc.) to maintain control.

But IMO (ignorant as it may be) Russians are getting a taste of real freedoms, and while they do like security it's possible they might also take increasing restrictions with less submission than they used to.

Once can hope, but only time will tell.

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